ROGUE SIGNS STOPPING TRAFFIC

Vigilante markers polarize neighborhood by upending legal process

Some neighbors on Jennings Street in Point Loma have thought for more than a decade that traffic was racing through their neighborhood at unacceptable speeds.

Since 2000, they’ve asked the city for stop signs to slow the motorists, and the city always said no. A yellow “yield” sign was the best the city could do, the engineers said.

Then last July, a stop sign appeared. And another.

Who put them in? Not the city.

A vigilante installer put up the signs, flying in the face of the law. And what do you know? They worked.

One rogue sign has been up since July. Another was taken down and replaced by an official city of San Diego sign.

Both were blessed by a city process that allowed the local community planning group and Councilman Kevin Faulconer to overrule the determination of civil engineers.

A resurfacing crew even accommodated the unauthorized signs by painting “STOP” in big white letters on the pavement, thinking the previous “YIELD” letters were a mistake.

The issue has polarized the otherwise quaint neighborhood, along Jennings at Albion Street and Silvergate Avenue, just east of Point Loma Nazarene University.

One group of residents says the stop signs make the neighborhood safer for walkers and children who share the streets with passing vehicles.

Another faction believes the city, by approving the stop signs retroactively, has condoned the removal of its own yield signs and made a decision with incorrect facts.

“The city by its actions is saying that it is OK to take down a sign, because there is a process to legitimize it,” said Don Farnsworth, who has lived on Silvergate since the 1970s.

Removing and replacing a city sign is not, technically speaking, legal. But the city hasn’t searched for the instigator, and no one has been cited. City officials said they cannot remember another instance of a rogue sign being installed.

“Anyone who manipulates traffic signs is violating state law, and it cannot and should not be done,” said Bill Harris, spokesman for the city’s transportation office. “However, when we encounter situations like this, which is absolutely rare and potentially unique, we carefully scrutinize the issue, explore what the community’s interests are, and act according to our policy.”

Harris likened the situation to the city adding a pedestrian walkway in an area where people once jaywalked.

When the matter first came to light, the city removed one of the two stop signs and replaced it with the previous yield sign.

A group of neighbors wrote to Faulconer’s office asking the city to return the stop sign, which they said was safer.

“The issue is the danger of that corner and … a serious safety issue that could potentially affect the entire neighborhood, certainly be catastrophic for homes in the immediate area,” resident Simon Borger wrote to Faulconer in January.

Van Thaxton, who has lived on Silvergate since 1996, said the community’s demographics have changed from an older population to one of younger families with children. Thaxton said drivers would ignore the yield signs and speed through the intersections.